Category: News

⁵ Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
    and do not rely on your own insight.
⁶ In all your ways acknowledge him,
    and he will make straight your paths.
⁷ Be not wise in your own eyes;
    fear the Lord, and turn away from evil.
⁸ It will be healing to your flesh
    and refreshment to your bones.  Proverbs 3:5-8

One of the skills I learned in the Boy Scouts growing up was how to use a compass.  During our Jamboree, where all the troops in Cleveland gathered to compete against each other in the various skills we were learning, our leaders set up a compass course.  Throughout a very large area of the forest, our leaders attached markers with a unique hole punch to trees and then gave us the bearings on how to find them with our compass.  We had to run through the forest and find the markers and punch our cards and whoever had the most correct punches received the points.  Sometimes, I remember the event being easier than others, we quickly found the markers and sometimes I remember us having to wander the woods until we found them.  But most of the time, we were able to find our way even if that way was a long and winding road through the pine trees.

In our time together as two churches, we have experienced moments of the last three years where we arrived at the destinations where God wanted us to go, but we have also experienced moments that felt like a long and winding road through the pine trees.  Perhaps we are unsure of what God is calling us to become, or perhaps we have great anxiety about what a merged congregation might look like.  While we certainly have all that, and much more, we do have a compass to point us in the faithful direction and to aid us in our discipleship.  Proverbs states, in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.  Jesus, our Lord knows the path for us to take.  Jesus, our Shepherd protect us from those who prey upon us.  Jesus, our Provider, gives us every Spiritual gift needed for us to follow.  All we can do in those moments of uncertainty and anxiety is to acknowledge Him in every choice and matter, and He will compass us to the faithful end.  He will make straight the discerning choices we as a community of faith must make this year. 

What I think the Author of the Proverbs is showing us is that no matter how much we don’t understand the path or even the destination we really do not rely on our own insight.  While human insight has provided profound discoveries in energy and medicine, that insight still does not compare to the insight of Jesus Christ.  He might just have a more complete and a more faithful insight into what is best for our community.  Can we acknowledge he might just know better?  But the Author is also showing us that no matter how much an uncertain future frightens us, or how much this drastic change worries us, we can still trust in the Lord with all your heart.  I worry and I fear, but Christ is faithful until death and entrusts himself to God.  He just might be a more faithful human being than we could ever be for ourselves.  Can we acknowledge we just might need His help?

Friends, as we face a momentous time of discernment and decision, no doubt we must also face our fears and our anxieties.  But we have been promised the Son and the Spirit, our compass to a faithful life together and our energy to live into that life.  This means that as have our last town hall meetings, and our last conversations, and our last moments as two congregations, we don’t have to be confused, nor afraid.  God has promised direction for our minds and refreshment to our bones.  Faith then it seems, is about acknowledging we don’t know the path or the goal, but we know the compass.  Faith then it would seem is about confessing that we have neither the courage nor the endurance, but we have the Spirit of God.  Our calling seems to be to live these next few weeks and months in discernment, not by fear but by faith, neither by weakness but by the power of God.  Let us follow our compass and we will faithfully reach the finish line, even if we must take the long winding road through the pine trees.  Amen. 

¹⁹ But Mary kept all these things, pondering them in her heart.  Luke 1:19

¹ Unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.  Unless the LORD guards the city, the guard keeps watch in vain.  Psalm 127:1

¹⁸ Give thanks in all circumstances: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.  1 Thessalonians 5:18

¹² Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.  Philippians 3:12

As I sit here in my office on a gloomy Christmas Eve morning, the bulletins sit ready to be read.  The bells wait on the tables ready to be played.  The candles wait to be lit, and the pews wait to be filled.  The decorations are hung, the sermon has been written, and all things wait in silence for the hum and joy of another Christmas Eve Candlelit service.  Everything for the moment is calm and waiting in expectation.

Perhaps then as I sit and review my to-do list, wondering if I have forgotten any chore and wondering if the sermon needs any more polishing, I can relate to what Mary did that first night of motherhood so long ago, Mary kept all these things, pondering them in her heart.  The Shepherds had left with an out-of-the ordinary story about lights and angels, recognizing this newborn baby as God’s long-awaited Messiah and she stored all these things and turned them over in her heart.  I find myself storing up not just another Christmas Eve but another year and turning over the times and seasons of 2024.

What a year and what times have we had!  We have had new beginnings adding another church to our community of faith, and we have said goodbyes to long-standing pillar members.  We have had to compromise on worship arrangements, and we have added new energy and new excitement to our Outreach partnerships.  We have studied and learned, and at times struggled and wrestled with new problems.  But perhaps the greatest learning of mine is that of a single verse of scripture, for all my work and investing in merging and meshing communities, unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.  Unless God meshes and merges, I work to no effect.  Unless God protects this community, my work is empty.  Unless God gathers and encourages, my words and actions are in vain.

But God has done everything God promised and more.  When we look over everything that has happened, we can see the faithful actions of a faithful God.  God is still working, rescuing and leading his people.  God is still here and still for God’s people.  This is why I sit in the silence of an empty church, storing and pondering another year and like the Apostle, giving thanks in all circumstances: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.  I am floored at how 3 groups of people can become knitted together stronger than any quilt.  I am astonished at how differences can be worked out and flabbergasted at how new energy can be released into tired and frustrated hearts.  I am staggered at how God overcomes barrier and roadblock to see God’s will done.  I am stunned, like Mary, at the new things God is doing, and I will never stop giving thanks to God for you and your willingness to try new things.

No sooner than I think of all the good things God has done this last year, I also begin to contemplate the tasks that God has prepared for us this coming year: new mergers and new decisions and new collaborations.  We certainly have come far but still have more journey to make.  Paul is right when he wrote, not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.  We are not there yet, but still must press forward as the runner keeps putting one foot in front of the other until Christ returns, and that means a new faithfulness on our part.  God is still faithful to us; will we grow in faithfulness back to God?

In a few hours, we will sing, pray and worship our faithful God who became flesh.  The waiting and expectation will turn into presence and joy.  In a new year, we will face and discern what the will of our faithful God is.  The challenge will be for us is how we meet God who meets us in Jesus of Nazareth?  Thankfulness in all circumstances, pressing forward to meet Christ who made us his?  Courage and collaboration?  Faithfulness and fearlessness?  Hope and Wonder?  Let us make this season, a season of faithfulness for the faithfulness of our God; and then every day of 2025 will be Christmas day.  Alleluia and Amen.

Comfort, comfort my people,
says your God.
² Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
    and cry to her
that her warfare is ended,
    that her iniquity is pardoned,
that she has received from the Lord’s hand
    double for all her sins.

³ A voice cries:
“In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord,
    Make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
⁴ Every valley shall be lifted up,
    and every mountain and hill be made low;
the uneven ground shall become level,
    and the rough places a plain.
⁵ And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed,
    and all flesh shall see it together,
    for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

A voice says, “Cry!”
    And I said, “What shall I cry?”
All flesh is grass,
    and all its beauty is like the flower of the field.
⁷ The grass withers, the flower fades,
    when the breath of the Lord blows upon it;
    surely the people is grass.
⁸ The grass withers, the flower fades;
    but the word of our God will stand for ever.  Isaiah 40:1-8

I sit in front of my computer, looking out my dining room window upon 60 inches of now blowing snow thanks to the Alberta Clipper coming through and wondering to myself, if I must shovel my driveway one more time, I might scream in frustration!  My routine while stuck at home during the blizzard was to shovel two or three times a day and to try and keep a runway to the road.  Each time I think to myself I have overcome the snow; the clouds drop six inches more.  Even with over-the-counter pain medication, my arms and back could not handle having to shovel another few inches let alone the foot the forecast threatens me.  I wonder what the use is in shoveling if more snow keeps dropping?

The strength in my arms has faded, now I know what Isaiah means when the flowers fade.  My motivation for a clean driveway withers, just like Isaiah’s grass when the breath of God blows upon it.  A voice says cry and Isaiah said cry what.  A voice says shovel and I say I am buying a snowblower.  Isaiah is speaking to people in exile in Babylon and buried under snow and melancholy I find Isaiah still speaking to us in exile in Siberia.  Commanded to speak and cry to the people and he didn’t have it in him.  Buried in an avalanche of snow and upheaval, we are commanded to prepare for the LORD’s coming and we don’t have it in us.  We wither and fade in faith because it feels like we shovel or prepare in vain to no effect; we clear the driveways of our hearts and something new drops in.  We clear a foot and creation drops two more.

I can understand Isaiah’s situation, but I can also appreciate the response of God.  Isaiah was in exile, and we find ourselves also in Babylon.  But the enormity of his and our surroundings, surrounded by idols and unfaithfulness, God reminds Isaiah and us, that while our strength and situations wither and fade, God’s strength and faithfulness stands forever.  Our existence is not an achievement in which we can put on the mantel, but a divine gift given precisely into our withering and fading hearts.  Spoken not into prosperity but into exile, which creates renewal.  Spoken not into abundance but into scarcity, which creates renewal.  Spoken not into energy and imagination, but into tiredness and staleness, which resurrects.  Since the Word of God stands forever, we don’t need to achieve it, we can, as finite creatures, open ourselves to receive it, and come to life again.

This is why Isaiah found the strength to comfort the people of God, because the strength of God finds him in his exhaustion.  And if God could find Isaiah and exodus him from his fatigue, God can do likewise with Israel from Babylon and God can do likewise with today’s church from Babylon.  Energy for our weariness.  Hope for our despair.  Peace for our polarized nation.  Joy for our misery.  Love for our malignities and nastiness.  Comfort ye my people, because God has come to exodus, or bring out his people from their exiles.

This is how we find the strength to prepare the road out of Babylon, because it isn’t ours, but the very power of our faithful God.  This is how the valleys could be filled in and the mountains shaved off, the crooked curves made straight, and the rough patches of asphalt smoothed out; because it isn’t really our work, it is really God’s work in God’s power, and it will never be in vain or empty.  But for it to be God’s work then something needs to change in us.  Perhaps instead of building a Christian Empire, we need to do the hard and vulnerable work of building the Kingdom of God.  Relationships and community instead of building and budgets.  Gratitude instead of envy.  Courage instead of fear.  Security instead of anxiety.  Love instead of hate.  Forgiveness instead of guilt.  That’s building the road out of Babylon.  Maybe that’s the work this Advent which needs done.

Friends, I am tired of shoveling snow, but I also think we are tired of witnessing Gospel.  Every time we make headway, we suffer setbacks and discouragements.  But Advent reminds us that we never labor in vain, because we labor under the gracious and loving work of the Word of God, who stands forever, even while our energy and commitment wither and fade.  So, find comfort in the faithfulness of God this Advent season, do a little road work in our hearts, but most importantly live as the new people that come into God’s Kingdom, because God has already come to us.  Advent means coming… maybe it is time for us to come back to God, again.  Amen.